West Palm Beach's Antique Row fumes over 'spite,' 'aggression' in charity event dispute
The springtime gala Evening on Antique Row has endured for more than a quarter century, through years when prostitutes still strutted boldly on Dixie Highway north of Southern Boulevard and a grungy gas station sold glass pipes on the corner to a nascent renaissance of moneyed newcomers and trendy restaurants.
But a quarrel between party host the Young Friends of the Palm Beach County Historical Society and some shop owners is tainting this year’s April 1 affair in a kerfuffle over inviting outside vendors who Antique Row leaders see as interlopers in their hard-earned territory.
The nonprofit Historical Society, which made about $100,000 on last year’s party to benefit its educational programs, said the invitation to other artists and antique dealers to set up temporary showcases for the occasion is an effort to include more of its sponsors and enliven a party whose tickets cost between $75 and $200.
A private cabana in the VIP area, where music pumps and booze flows, is a cool $2,500.
“This is supposed to be about us and the historical society together, but this is about money. It’s greed,” said Faustina Pace, president of the South Dixie Antique Row Association. “I almost feel like we are being bullied by the Young Friends.”
A post on the Antique Row Art & Design District Facebook page says shop owners were met with “spite” and “aggression” when they requested the event be put on hold this year so the two sides could regroup and mend their fractured relationship. Thirty-five shops out of an estimated 50 have said they will lock their doors for the event. One even suggested covering shop windows with brown paper.
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But the permit to close Dixie Highway between Monroe Drive and Southern Boulevard is approved, tickets are selling, restaurants and vendors are being scheduled and the party will happen — shops or no shops — promised Jeremy Johnson, president and CEO of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
“I will tell you that the event is still going to take place, and while there is some disagreement right now, we very much want to work with the merchants of the Row and I am hopeful we can resolve some of the differences,” Johnson said. “This year will be bigger and better than we’ve ever been.”
Antique Row grew from unrefined hodge podge to elite cosmopolitan shopping district
When Antique Row officially became Antique Row is muddy, but a 1979 article in The Palm Beach Post-Times uses the moniker to describe a "new goldmine" of seven dealers of vintage wares confined to the 3700 block Dixie Highway. In 1986, a Palm Beach Post story about Dixie Highway highlighted Antique Row shops and restaurants that were part of the transition from semi-shady to demure.
Today, many of those shops are long gone. Arthur Roberts Barber Shop is now Cholo Soy Cocina. The Red Lion Inn is now Palm Beach Designer Fabrics. The Pizza Hut is now City Diner. Ranch’s Drug Store and Fountain is now The Elephant’s Foot Antiques.
Jeffrey Burgess, owner of James and Jeffrey Antiques, said in an interview this year that it was a 1990’s-era Architectural Digest story that cemented Antique Row’s reputation for carrying a bounty of treasures from 1920s Art Deco to mid-century modern. A 1996 story from the same chronicle describes the street as “an unassuming, even slightly dilapidated mile of shops” with “real gems” inside, while a 2003 story compared Antique Row to shopping districts on the Rue de Beaune in Paris or New King’s Road in London.
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“We’ve built up this area over a long period of time, and it benefits the city,” said Louise Pinson, who has owned shops on Antique Row since the early 1990s. “In the past, antique stores gravitated toward the cheapest rents, but now we pay a lot to be here.”
Pinson usually keeps her Palm Beach Vintage clothing store closed during Evening on Antique Row because people milling about with drinks and finger foods don’t mix well with thousand-dollar Chanel suits.
Her husband, John Finger, has kept his Palm Beach Vintage Home store open for Evening on Antique Row but said that last year, a competitor from outside the area was set up across the street.
“The whole idea is to present and showcase our business, not someone else’s business that isn’t on Antique Row,” Finger said.
And that’s important to the Row because there is encroaching competition.
Gritty Georgia Avenue to its southwest has upped its retail game with designers such as Meg Braff and sprawling showcase stores such as Authentic Provence. To its north, the golden honeycombed Hive Palm Beach has amassed five buildings for its boutique clothing store, gifts, garden shop and bakery.
“Evening on Antique Row has been going on for many, many, many years, and we just feel that it is as much our event as it is the historical society’s,” Finger said.
Money benefits historical society's education programs for children
The Young Friends of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County count 2023 as the 28th for Evening on Antique Row. For the ticket price, attendees get a set amount of finger foods from different food trucks or restaurants with booths, and champagne, wine, mixed drinks and beer from shops. In 2022, Pace hired two bartenders to serve lychee martinis in front of her shop of 19th and 20th century Swedish and French furniture and decorative items.
Last year was the most successful event in its nearly three-decade history with more than 1,500 people attending and about 17 shops participating, Johnson said.
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“There are a lot of years where stores choose not to participate, but this is the first time there has been an effort to extinguish the event,” Johnson said.
Sean Rush, owner of Nomad art gallery and café, has participated in Evening on Antique Row since his gallery opened 12 years ago and plans to stay open this year. He said boycotting the affair is shortsighted, and that he’s sold paintings that cost upwards of $20,000 during the event.
“I can say nothing but beautiful things about the historical society and what they do for the community,” Rush said. “This is just a Gladys Kravitz get-off-my-yard situation, and it’s bubbling out of control.”
Gladys Kravitz was the name of the nosy neighbor in the 1964 to 1972 television sitcom "Bewitched."
Rush faults Pace for the tumult between the Row and the historical society, but Finger said many shop owners are upset and not just because of the competing booths. Last year, food ran out, not all of the tents were set up and barricades were placed so as to cut off the south end of the Row, Finger said.
Johnson acknowledged the concerns. He said three restaurants backed out the week of the event and that the vendor supplying the tents didn’t have enough employees to set them all up.
This year, as many as eight shops won’t be open because the date of April 1 coincides with a large antique show in Texas. Craig Ketelsen, co-owner of James and Jeffrey Antiques, said he wasn’t told until mid-December that a date had been chosen and that the shops weren’t consulted.
"It's all really a shame," Ketelsen said.
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Johnson hopes that a reconciliation can happen before the event.
Pace isn’t optimistic. The South Dixie Antique Row Association went so far as to ask the city of West Palm Beach to revoke the street closure permit but was rebuffed.
“I went to my people and I said let’s give them another chance because their mission is our mission, bringing history back and collecting and presenting,” Pace said about the historical society. “The board said no.”
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Alexandra Clough contributed to this story.
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Shop owners, historical society at odds over Evening on Antique Row
